Members & Former Members

We establish a duality between harmonic maps from Riemann surfaces to hyperbolic 3-space $\mathbb{H}^3$ and harmonic maps from Riemann surfaces to de Sitter three-space $\mathrm{dS}_3$, best viewed as a generalized Gauß map. On the gauge theoretic side, it matches $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ and $\mathrm{SU}(1,1)$ solutions of Hitchin's self-duality equations via a signature flip along an eigenline of the Higgs field. Reversing this operation typically produces singular solutions, occurring where the eigenline becomes lightlike. Motivated by explicit model examples and this singular behavior, we extend this duality to a class of \emph{transgressive} harmonic maps $f:M\to \mathbb S^3$: these are harmonic on the hemispheres equipped with the hyperbolic metric, intersect the equator orthogonally, and have vanishing Hopf differential along the crossing set. We construct large families by gluing and analyze their regularity, and as an application obtain $\tau$-real negative sections of the Deligne--Hitchin moduli space of arbitrarily large energy that are not twistor lines.

Related project(s):
55New hyperkähler spaces from the the self-duality equations77Asymptotic geometry of the Higgs bundle moduli space II

Using non-Abelian Hodge theory for parabolic Higgs bundles,

we construct infinitely many non-congruent  hyperbolic affine spheres modeled on a thrice-punctured sphere with monodromy in ${\bf SL}_3(\Z)$. These give rise to non-isometric semi-flat Calabi--Yau metrics on special Lagrangian torus bundles over an open ball in $\R^{3}$  with a Y-vertex deleted, thereby answering a question raised by Loftin, Yau, and Zaslow.

Related project(s):
55New hyperkähler spaces from the the self-duality equations

The Lawson surfaces $\xi_{1,g}$ of genus $g$ are constructed by rotating and reflecting the Plateau solution $f_t$ with respect to a particular geodesic $4$-gon $\Gamma_t$ along its boundary, where $t= \tfrac{1}{2g+2}$ is an angle of  $\Gamma_t$.  In this paper we combine the existence and regularity of the Plateau solution $f_t$ in $t \in (0, \tfrac{1}{4})$ with topological information about the moduli space of Fuchsian systems on the 4-puncture sphere to obtain existence of a Fuchsian DPW potential $\eta_t$ for every $f_t$ with $t\in(0, \tfrac{1}{4}]$. Moreover, the coefficients of $\eta_t$ are shown to depend real analytically on $t$. This implies that the Taylor approximation of the DPW potential $\eta_t$ and of the area obtained at $t=0$ found in \cite{HHT2} determines these quantities for  all $\xi_{1,g}$. In particular, this leads to an algorithm to conformally parametrize all Lawson surfaces $\xi_{1,g}$.

Related project(s):
55New hyperkähler spaces from the the self-duality equations56Large genus limit of energy minimizing compact minimal surfaces in the 3-sphere

We prove the existence of a pair $(\Sigma ,\, \Gamma)$, where $\Sigma$ is a compact Riemann surface with $\text{genus}(\Sigma)\, \geq\, 2$, and $\Gamma\, \subset\, {\rm SL}(2, \C)$ is a cocompact lattice, such that there is a generically injective holomorphic map $\Sigma \, \longrightarrow\, {\rm SL}(2, \C)/\Gamma$. This gives an affirmative answer to a question raised by Huckleberry and Winkelmann \cite{HW} and by Ghys \cite{Gh}.

Related project(s):
55New hyperkähler spaces from the the self-duality equations56Large genus limit of energy minimizing compact minimal surfaces in the 3-sphere

For every $g \gg 1$, we show the existence of a complete and smooth family  of closed constant mean curvature surfaces $f_\varphi^g,$ $ \varphi \in [0, \tfrac{\pi}{2}],$ in the round $3$-sphere deforming the Lawson surface $\xi_{1, g}$ to a doubly covered geodesic 2-sphere with monotonically increasing Willmore energy. To do so we use an implicit function theorem argument in the parameter $s= \tfrac{1}{2(g+1)}$. This allows us to give an iterative algorithm to compute the power series expansion of the DPW potential and area of $f_\varphi^g$  at $s= 0$ explicitly.  In particular,  we obtain for large genus Lawson surfaces $\xi_{1,g}$, due to the real analytic dependence of its area  and DPW potential on $s,$  a scheme to explicitly compute the coefficients of the power series in $s$ in terms of multilogarithms. Remarkably, the third order coefficient of the area expansion coincides numerically with $\tfrac{9}{4}\zeta(3),$ where $\zeta$ is the Riemann $\zeta$ function (while the first and second order term were shown to be $\log(2)$  and $0$ respectively in \cite{HHT}).

Related project(s):
55New hyperkähler spaces from the the self-duality equations56Large genus limit of energy minimizing compact minimal surfaces in the 3-sphere

For every integer $g \,\geq\, 2$ we show the existence of a compact Riemann surface $\Sigma$ of genus $g$ such that the rank two trivial holomorphic vector bundle ${\mathcal O}^{\oplus 2}_{\Sigma}$ admits holomorphic connections with $\text{SL}(2,{\mathbb R})$ monodromy and maximal Euler class. Such a monodromy representation is known to coincide with the Fuchsian uniformizing representation for some Riemann surface of genus $g$. This also answers a question of \cite{CDHL}. The construction carries over to all very stable and compatible real holomorphic structures over the topologically trivial rank two bundle on $\Sigma$, and gives the existence of holomorphic connections with Fuchsian monodromy in these cases as well.

Related project(s):
55New hyperkähler spaces from the the self-duality equations56Large genus limit of energy minimizing compact minimal surfaces in the 3-sphere

We study the holomorphic symplectic geometry of (the smooth locus of) the space of holomorphic sections of a twistor space with rotating circle action. The twistor space has a meromorphic connection constructed by Hitchin. We give an interpretation of Hitchin's meromorphic connection in the context of the Atiyah--Ward transform of the corresponding hyperholomorphic line bundle. It is shown that the residue of the meromorphic connection serves as a moment map for the induced circle action, and its critical points are studied. Particular emphasis is given to the example of Deligne--Hitchin moduli spaces.

Related project(s):
55New hyperkähler spaces from the the self-duality equations